title: An examination of the association between premature mortality and life expectancy among men in Europe.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A feature of the health of men across Europe is their higher rates of premature mortality and shorter life expectancy at birth than women. Following the publication of the first State of Men's Health in Europe report, we sought to explore possible reasons.
  
  
  METHODS
  We analyzed trends in life expectancy at birth in 19 European Union member states (EU19) between 1999 and 2008 using mortality data obtained from Eurostat. We then used Pollard's decomposition method to identify the contribution of deaths from different causes and at different age groups to differences in life expectancy.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Between 1999 and 2008, life expectancy at birth in the EU19 increased by 2.74 years for men and by 2.09 years for women. Most of these improvements were due to reductions in mortality at ages >60, with cardiovascular disease accounting for approximately half these improvements for men. In 2008, life expectancy of men in the EU19 was 5.92 years lower than that of women. Deaths from all major groups of causes, and at all ages, contributed to this gap, with external causes contributing 0.96 years, cardiovascular disease 1.80 years and neoplasms 1.61 years.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Improvements in the life expectancy at birth of men and women have mostly occurred at older ages. There has been little improvement in the high rate of premature death in younger men, suggesting a need for interventions to tackle their high death rate.
authors.affiliation: 1 Centre for Men's Health, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds LS2 8NU, UK a.white@leedsmet.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: White
authors.affiliation: 2 London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McKee
authors.affiliation: 3 Faculdade de Psicologia e Ciências da Educação, Universidade de Coimbra, Coimbra, Portugal.
authors.forename: Bruno
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: de Sousa
authors.affiliation: 4 School of Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, UK.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: de Visser
authors.affiliation: 1 Centre for Men's Health, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds LS2 8NU, UK.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hogston
authors.affiliation: 5 Copenhagen University Hospital, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Svend Aage
authors.initials: SA
authors.lastname: Madsen
authors.affiliation: 6 Institute of Public Health, Semmelweis University Budapest, Budapest, Hungary.
authors.forename: Péter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Makara
authors.affiliation: 7 Centre for Men's Health, Institute of Technology Carlow, Carlow, Ireland.
authors.forename: Noel
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Richardson
authors.affiliation: 8 Department of Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention, Cancer Center and Institute of Oncology, Warsaw, Poland9 European Health Inequalities Observatory, Institute of Rural Health, Lublin, Poland.
authors.forename: Witold
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Zatoński
authors.affiliation: 1 Centre for Men's Health, Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, Leeds Metropolitan University, Leeds LS2 8NU, UK.
authors.forename: Gary
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Raine
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002423:Cause of Death; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008017:Life Expectancy; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D061213:Mortality, Premature; D012737:Sex Factors; D055815:Young Adult